Three Years - Sentence du Jour

A man throws his shoes at an American president and gets three years. A man's criminal negligence results in the freezing death of his two small daughters, and he gets three years.

Hmmmm. Seems to me to be a little matter of disproportion here, but I'm not sure which way. What I am sure of is both men seem to be cast from the same irresponsible-blame-everyone-else mold and they both have their cheering section with a political agenda:

"Earlier this week, an angry Chief Lawrence Joseph, head of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations delivered a scathing address, to the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention.

He suggested politicians stop worrying about potholes and start focusing on the "rampant" crisis of substance abuse in the aboriginal community."

Ya, sure, Joseph. Self-government means accepting responsibility, not pointing fingers of blame in order to deflect it from yourself. Gotta keep that whipping boy handy, don't we.

Now on to the shoe thrower:

"His (the shoe thrower) sister, Ruqaiya, was seen to burst into tears and shout: "Down with (Iraqi Prime Minister) Maliki, agent of the Americans" and several family members stood outside Iraq Central Criminal Court shouting anti-American slogans."

[---]

"A bronze monument of a shoe has been put up in honour of al-Zaidi in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit."

So, it seems the journalist has some fans among Saddam Hussein's hometown compatriots. If he talks like a Ba'athist, acts like a Ba'athist and scores points with Ba'athists, the guy is a Ba'athist. Surprise. Surprise.